Tag Archive: water for youth

This picture says it all really! How powerful water is in its strength. But do we really know how water affects our bodies and our health? Most of us just turn on a tap without a second thought as to where it comes from, whether it is good for us or not or even whether or how much of it we should be drinking for health!

Water And Your Health

Let’s start with your body’s need for water. We are similar to our planet which is made up of approximately 80% water – so are we. What happens to us if we don’t drink water? The planet gets topped up with rain – how do we top our own water supplies? Drinking it!

What are the effects of not drinking enough water? Most of you will jump to dehydration – but at what point are we dehydrated? When we feel thirsty? At that point, however we are really dehydrated. Our bodies give us many messages before you actually feel the need to drink.

Mostly we are not listening! What are the early warning signs? What are the chronic dehydration symptoms of the body through lack of water?

Your body needs an absolute minimum of 6-8 glasses of water per day. Alcohol, coffee, tea and caffeine-containing everages don’t count as water! Herbal teas do. The best times to drink water (clinically observed in peptic ulcer disease) are – one glass half an hour before taking food – breakfast lunch and dinner – and a similar amount 2.5 hours after each meal. This is the very minimum amount of water your body needs. Adding another glass before bedtime is also helpful.

When you start to drink more, your body recognises the increased intake and kicks in the ‘thirst mechanism’ and begins to become more efficient and then asks you to drink more!

If you think about it – and most don’t – it is common sense! Without the cushion that water provides for our joints they can swell and hurt. Without the diluting effect of water for our blood, it comes thick and slow. Without enough water we become constipated. Our skin ages faster as there is not enough moisture within the cells and we look dehydrated. We suffer from lower back pain as our kidneys protest that they cannot detoxify us as they don’t have the water flushed through them to do so – so poisons start to back up into our systems.

I never used to understand why my mother looked so much older than her years – now I know! She was severely chronically dehydrated. She only ever drank tea and coffee – which are dehydrating in themselves – never, ever any water! It is actually one of our greatest beauty secrets to keeping the skin flushed and clear of toxins.

What happens to your plants if you don’t water them? What happens to your lawn if it doesn’t rain? The answers are all there – we just forget to relate them to ourselves!

Are All Waters Equal?

That would be a resounding no! Once upon a time it was fine to turn on the tap and drink the water from the mains. Now – it most definitely is not! Why? The water has been treated to such a degree to kill bacteria, that it is laden with chemicals and heavy metals which are harmful to our health. The amount of chlorine in tap water is frightening! You can actually smell it when running a bath – a little like being at a public swimming pool and the effects it has on you are equally bad. Chlorine destroys all bacteria – however it destroys the good ones in your digestive system as well. Bathing in chlorine dehydrates your skin and causes dryness and flakiness and is a big indicator in eczema. Showering with chlorinated water is actually worse than bathing as you are keeping hot water scouring the pipes and the steam rises from the floor of the shower so you inhale far more chlorine.

What Is The Answer?

There are so many products available today that will help to remove the chlorine – firstly it is never necessary to drink tap water. Filter jugs are on sale everywhere which negates the expense of continually buying bottled water.

There is a great product called Alba Pura to add to bath water as you are running it which removes all the chlorine and softens the water. I use it and the difference is huge –Check it out here

I hope that the information I have given goes some way towards you understanding how important it is to keep your body hydrated. Not just in youth, but in old age as well. For further information there is a great reference book out there called Your Body’s Many Cries For Water – which you might find beneficial and certainly interesting! Find it here